Thank god these horse and pony shows are done with, truly. "Joe the Plumber," if you exist, bless your heart, but I've never experienced a more irritating gimmick than your insertion into this debate. The economic crisis? It has been boiled down by moderator after moderator this season into a contest on which candidate is the more convincing budget hawk. But has anyone ever heard of Keynes or FDR? Infrastructure and social spending is what will create jobs in a recession. Unfortunately, the lessons of history have never been major topics in these debates.
On abortion, Obama did better than any Democrat has since Clinton, Bill. He won that segment by being pro-choice, pro-woman, pro-health, and pro-morality -- even religious morality. On health care, McCain was clearly on the defensive; instead of discussing his actual plan, which would do nothing to expand coverage, he made some inoffensive statements in favor of electronic medical records and against obesity. (Isn't obesity an issue of "personal responsibility," anyhow? Or has the position on that changed since Mike Huckabee came to town? Just checkin'.)
To be sure, McCain started strong with his exhortation, "I'm not George Bush." His attacks on Obama are too tedious to recount here, though I suppose they were as potent tonight as they ever were -- among those who believe the Democratic nominee consorts with terrorists and wants to kill babies. In his closing statement, McCain portrayed himself, through his paternal line, as quintessentially patriotic, speaking of a "long line of McCains who have served this country in wartime and in peace. It's been the honor of my life." The implication was that Obama, with his immigrant father, funny name, and so on, can never meet McCain's pure American-ness. Of course, that has been the underlying rationale behind all the McCain-Palin attacks of the last several weeks, so this was no surprise.
The good news? This election is almost over. Finally.
--Dana Goldstein
